Conventional message screening systems, such as voicemail, videomail, and multimedia message mail screening systems, do not provide end-users or network operators with the ability to prevent message deposits from being performed. As a result, message servers are open to becoming spam receptacles. In one example, a calling party may initiate a call to a called party who is unavailable to answer the call. In a SIP scenario, the called party terminal may then generate a message indicating that he is unavailable to answer, such as a 486 Busy message. This message may be received by the switch attempting to connect the call, and upon determining that the calling party is unavailable, the call attempt may be converted into a voicemail deposit attempt. In a voicemail deposit attempt, the calling party may attempt to leave a voicemail message for the called party. In order to initiate a message deposit transaction, the switch may determine an appropriate message server associated with the called party and route the call to the determined message server. Once connected to the message server, a message deposit may be performed.
While conventional methods may exist for screening which messages are listened to by a subscriber, the message screening criteria is typically applied after the message deposit transaction has been completed and a message has been stored. Therefore, while conventional message systems may provide users with the ability to screen the messages they listen to, conventional message systems do not provide operators with the ability to screen message deposit transactions before unwanted messages are deposited. Accordingly, conventional message systems may expend unnecessary message resources in order to perform unwanted message deposit transactions and store unwanted messages. In addition, as described above, message storage such as voicemail, videomail, and multimedia mail mailboxes may become repositories for unwanted or spam messages.
Accordingly, in light of these difficulties, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer program products for performing voicemail deposit transaction screening.